Ad Hoc Chicken and Dumplings

When Derek says he wants to make chicken and dumplings, I immediately go into my memory box and pull out one of my favorite childhood comfort foods. A chicken soup with carrots and celery, only slightly thickened, with large puffy flour dumplings cooked right in the soup. The dumpling recipe, passed down from my grandma, is simple perfection:

Grandma’s Dumplings

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
3 tablespoons shortening
1/3 cup milk
2 eggs

Mix together the dry ingredients. Cut in the shortening. Add the milk and eggs. Drop onto boiling soup and cover pot while the soup continues to boil for 15 minutes.

Easy enough!

However, it's no surprise that Derek was talking about a completely different creature when he spoke of chicken and dumplings. Leave it to Thomas Keller to complicate one of the most simple comfort foods!

Ad Hoc Chicken Soup with Dumplings

slightly adapted and scaled down to feed 2

1/2 tbsp butter
1/2 cup thinly sliced carrots
1/2 cup coarsely chopped celery
1/2 cup coarsely chopped onion
1/2 cup coarsely chopped leeks
salt

Melt the butter over medium heat in your stock pot and add the carrots, celery, onions and leeks. Place a cut out circle of parchment paper on top, reduce the heat and cook for 30-35 minutes, stirring occasionally.

When the vegetables are done, add the chicken stock and simmer for about 30 minutes, then strain the soup base into another pot and discard the vegetables.

Dumplings
1/4 cup water
2 tbsp butter
1/2 tsp and 1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp Dijon Mustard
1 large egg
1/2 tablespoon finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

Fill a large pot with salt and water and bring it to a simmer.

Combine the 1/4 cup water, butter and 1/2 tsp salt in a medium saucepan and bring it to a simmer over medium-high heat. Add the flour all at once, reduce the heat to medium and stir rapidly. The dough will come together in a glossy ball. Continue to cook the dough for about 4-5 minutes, stirring constantly. A thin coating of dough will form on the bottom of the pan.

Transfer the dough to a stand mixer and add the mustard, 1/4 tsp salt and mix to incorporate and release some heat. With the mixer on the lowest speed, add the egg and beat until it is completely incorporated. Add the flat-leaf parsley and stir in. If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can do this all by hand, it will just take longer for the egg to mix into the dough.

Shape the dumplings into quenelles using two soup spoons to scrape the dough into oblong football shapes or just drop into the simmering water. Once the dumplings rise to the surface, cook them for 5-6 minutes to ensure that they are cooked. Cut one open to make sure. Set aside.

1 qt chicken stock
3/4 cup peeled celery diagonally sliced into 1 1/2 inch long pieces
3/4 cup carrots, cut into quarters then diced into bite sized pieces
1/2 tsp honey
1 bay leaf
1 sprig of thyme
1 small garlic clove, crushed, skin on
salt and pepper
roux – 4 tbsp butter, 1/4 cup + 1 1/2 tbsp flour (we cut this down by a little more than half)
1 cup cooked, shredded chicken
1/8 cup chopped chives

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. When it is nearly melted, whisk in the four and cook, whisking constantly and adjusting heat as necessary so the roux bubbles but does not brown, about 3 to 4 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Blanch the celery briefly and put in an ice bath. Cover the carrots with water and add the honey, bay leaf, thyme, garlic clove and salt and pepper. Simmer for about 4-5 five minutes, drain and set aside.

Bring the soup base up to a simmer and whisk in the roux a little at a time until the soup is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Simmer and skim for 30 minutes. Season to taste and add 1 tsp. champagne vinegar (we used white wine as we are out of champagne) and stir in chopped chives, reserving some for garnish.

Prepare each serving bowl with a portion of chicken, celery, carrots, and dumplings.

Pour the soup into the dumplings, chicken, carrots, celery; garnish with chives.

As you can see, no fluffy dumplings here and it's quite a bit more composed than what I grew up with. However, the mix of flavors was really fabulous. The mustard in the dumplings (essentially potato-less gnocchi) really brought a nice complexity to the otherwise simple flavor of the dish. The vegetables were not cooked down to a point of soft texture but rather, were quite "al dente." Derek said that he would have like the carrots cooked just a few minutes more since a crunchy vegetable isn't ideal in a soup - though it was interesting.

We also wish that there had been more broth - it was good and we were left wanting more. I especially liked that we did not thicken the broth up as much as the recipe called for. In the cookbook images, it seems as though the broth is more like a gravy. While it may have been equally as good - or even better - I voted for a healthier more soup-like texture to the dish.

For all of the time and effort of this dish, I'd probably still keep it second to my typical, easier, chicken and dumplings. However, for guests or a weekend that we have some time to prepare it, this was certainly a unique variation on a classic, comforting dish.